That sounds like an odd statement for a Buddhist post. It's common thinking that so many people have an inflated opinion of themselves; their ego has created a self-image that bears down on others they view as of lesser value. One automatically thinks of our current President when reading this.
But people who have inflated egos, who think highly of themselves, are at a deeper level terribly insecure and have a very negative self-image. In fact, the more inflated the self-image, the greater the feeling of insecurity; the one compensates for the other. So such people really do not think highly of themselves; it's only the coping mechanism that they've developed over the years for not facing the reality of their self-image.
While there are indeed many people who fall into this category, there are many more who don't feel good about themselves. Period. As someone who has spent years teaching in elementary and middle schools, I can attest that the number of people who have low self-esteem far exceeds those who appear to have high self-esteem.
But regardless of the self-image one projects, low self-esteem—insecurity—internally eats up the soul. There's a German movie titled, "Angst Frisst die Seele Auf," which translates as "fear devours the soul," but the German word "auffressen" is a more scary, negative word than either "eat" or even "devour"; more accurate than the English. And it is more descriptive of what I'm talking about.
Not feeling good about yourself is the most crippling thing people face in going forward with their lives and relating to others. Where does this feeling come from? As with all of the skandhas, it comes from the negative things we have been taught to think about ourselves or experienced, especially early in life.
It's not just children who have alcoholic or otherwise abusive parents who have this problem. Even children who grow up in generally loving environments experience things which unintentionally have a negative impact on them. And when the ego develops at around age 3, it hangs on to these negative experiences, which is why our memory always seems to bring up unpleasant experiences, not pleasant ones.
So now the question is, if you've been burdened with low self-esteem and insecurity your whole life, how do you free yourself from this self-image so that your suffering ends and you experience peace and happiness. That is of course the subject of most of the posts in this blog and of my books: how to free yourself from the control of your ego-mind.
But in "25 words or less," what it involves is coming to understand 1) that your ego is not your true self, and that your true self is your heart (see my post, "How to Free Yourself from the Control of Your Ego-Mind"), and 2) that you are a child of the universe and as such were born essentially perfect, a miracle, with the force of the universe embedded within you. (see my post, "The Miracle That Is You" and my book, Discover Your Power).
When you come to this understanding of who you really are, then you can start being truly good to yourself—not in the sense of indulging yourself—but in the sense of reacting to yourself and the world around you in a way that allows the peace and happiness that is your birthright to manifest itself.
But people who have inflated egos, who think highly of themselves, are at a deeper level terribly insecure and have a very negative self-image. In fact, the more inflated the self-image, the greater the feeling of insecurity; the one compensates for the other. So such people really do not think highly of themselves; it's only the coping mechanism that they've developed over the years for not facing the reality of their self-image.
While there are indeed many people who fall into this category, there are many more who don't feel good about themselves. Period. As someone who has spent years teaching in elementary and middle schools, I can attest that the number of people who have low self-esteem far exceeds those who appear to have high self-esteem.
But regardless of the self-image one projects, low self-esteem—insecurity—internally eats up the soul. There's a German movie titled, "Angst Frisst die Seele Auf," which translates as "fear devours the soul," but the German word "auffressen" is a more scary, negative word than either "eat" or even "devour"; more accurate than the English. And it is more descriptive of what I'm talking about.
Not feeling good about yourself is the most crippling thing people face in going forward with their lives and relating to others. Where does this feeling come from? As with all of the skandhas, it comes from the negative things we have been taught to think about ourselves or experienced, especially early in life.
It's not just children who have alcoholic or otherwise abusive parents who have this problem. Even children who grow up in generally loving environments experience things which unintentionally have a negative impact on them. And when the ego develops at around age 3, it hangs on to these negative experiences, which is why our memory always seems to bring up unpleasant experiences, not pleasant ones.
So now the question is, if you've been burdened with low self-esteem and insecurity your whole life, how do you free yourself from this self-image so that your suffering ends and you experience peace and happiness. That is of course the subject of most of the posts in this blog and of my books: how to free yourself from the control of your ego-mind.
But in "25 words or less," what it involves is coming to understand 1) that your ego is not your true self, and that your true self is your heart (see my post, "How to Free Yourself from the Control of Your Ego-Mind"), and 2) that you are a child of the universe and as such were born essentially perfect, a miracle, with the force of the universe embedded within you. (see my post, "The Miracle That Is You" and my book, Discover Your Power).
When you come to this understanding of who you really are, then you can start being truly good to yourself—not in the sense of indulging yourself—but in the sense of reacting to yourself and the world around you in a way that allows the peace and happiness that is your birthright to manifest itself.
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